Floor decoration in Pier A

In the eastern rotunda of Pier A, Danish artist Jørn Larsen has created a labyrinthine floor mosaic in black Swedish granite and white Italian marble. Laid in 1998, the floor mosaic is 8.9 metres in diameter, and its stringent, almost mathematical, form complements the architectural line of the rest of the room. The mosaic pattern is stringently geometric, a good counterweight to the more sensuous window decoration created for the airport by artists Frans Widerberg and Per Steen Hebsgaard. Larsen worked with Danish natural stone supplier A/S ENC Natursten on the practical aspect of his artistic creation.

 

“I chose the King and Queen of colours: black and white, namely black granite and white marble, whose polished surface is like a mirror in which you can see yourself. I wanted to give the dimensions of the decoration a flexibility in addition to the geometric drawing’s own built-in movement phenomena,” explains Larsen about his work of art.

 

The mixture of simplicity and sophistication works well with the general choice of art and decoration at Copenhagen Airport.

 

“A piece of art at an airport faces difficult conditions. It has to compete with signs, advertising and enticing shop fronts for passenger attention. It will never have the full attention of the beholder as it would at a gallery or in a home. The artwork must be integrated into the surroundings yet still be sufficiently visible to be seen and catch people’s attention during the short time they’re hurrying by,” says Niels Boserup, president and CEO of Copenhagen Airports. He continues:

“More than 50,000 people pass through Copenhagen Airport each day. At Copenhagen Airport, we believe that a clean and quiet airport with impressive architecture and high quality interior design, and good, attention-getting artwork helps put passengers at ease, giving them a pleasant start on their journey.”

Biography: Jørn Larsen

1926: Born in Næstved, Denmark.
1941-46: Trained as decorator/indoor painter in Næstved.
1948-50: Drawing instruction at Teknisk Selskabs Skole school in Copenhagen.
1951: Admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen; left for Italy after a single semester.
1952-1954: Many trips in Europe, with short and long stays in France, Spain, Greece and Turkey.
1955: First non-figurative works; debuted with them at the Autumn Art Show in Copenhagen.
1960: A trip to eastern Greenland. After coming home to Denmark,  he started on a series
of pictures entitled “The Kutdleq Suite”.
1962: Painted his first achromatic pictures, which were shown together with “The Kutdleq Suite” at a separate exhibition at the Galerie Gammel Strand in Copenhagen.
1967: Received a grant from the Oluf Hartmann foundation.
1970: Became a member of the “Grønningen” artists’ collective.
1974-1976: Created a three-dimensional object in Corten steel (17m3) for Odense Universitetscenter. During the same period of time, he created a series of objects entitled “The Black Suite” in polished black Swedish granite in which the drawings were cut into the smooth polished surface of the stones. Six copies were made of each object.
1977: Awarded “La Mention Speciale du Jury” at the ninth Festival International de la Peinture in Cagnes sur-Mer, France.
1978: Awarded the Eckersberg medal. Awarded a three-year Danish State Art Foundation grant.
1979: Artwork at Odense Universitetscenter consisting of nine highly polished granite objects.
1981: Entrusted with the decoration and renovation of the Møllegade/Havnegade square in  Svendborg, Denmark. “The Black Granite Cube”.
1985: Received a life-long grant from the Danish State Art Foundation.
1988: Artwork for Roskilde County at its new hospital; created his first glass pieces together with Per Hebsgaard.
1989: Awarded the Thorvaldsen medal.
1992: Floor decoration at the Royal Danish Theatre; glass works for the church at Udlejre; experimented with porcelain for Royal Copenhagen.
1993: Received diploma for gable artwork, Copenhagen Municipality. Danish representative at the Venice Biennal. Floor artwork in black African granite at Dehn’s in Copenhagen.
1994: Logo for the Silkeborg Bad art centre.
1995: Sett-paved square, 20 m in diameter, of logo for Silkeborg Bad art centre.
1996: Altarpiece in highly polished black Swedish granite for the church at Udlejre. “Olympia”: work in glass (432x325 cm) at the Ny Calsberg Glyptoteket in Copenhagen.
1997: Exterior decoration of library wall in Ikast, Denmark, in white Carara and blue Bahia granite (682x497 cm).
1998: Floor decoration in black Swedish granite and white Greek marble (8.88 m in diameter).
1999: Won competition for sketch project “The Square in Front of the Thorvaldsen Museum”.
2000: Decoration and complete renovation of the church at Jelling.
2001: Campus Torv square at the University of Southern Denmark: white marble and black granite. Completed decoration of the Thorvaldsen square.